Agoura Hills officials and consultants presented preliminary results of a Community Wildfire Risk Assessment (CWRA) at a public workshop and invited community feedback on mitigation priorities, funding needs and evacuation planning.

The CWRA, consultants said, analyzes fire hazard, exposure and vulnerability across a five-mile analysis buffer around the city to capture typical ignition and spread patterns that reach Agoura Hills. “This is the second public workshop now for the community wildfire risk assessment, the CWRA,” Ramiro Odeva, assistant city manager, said at the start of the meeting. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy provided funding for the CWRA, city staff said.

The assessment identifies the highest cumulative risk near Liberty Canyon and Las Virgenes Canyon — areas the presenters said have historically acted as major fire flow paths into the city. David Kerr, a subcontractor with Jensen Hughes who helped prepare the analysis, said the consultants modeled fire hazard (topography, fuels, weather), exposure (housing density, critical infrastructure, natural resource areas) and social vulnerabilities (age, language) to generate multiple risk maps weighted to different community values, including cumulative risk, natural resource risk and economic risk.

Kerr described the analysis area as the corporate boundary plus a five-mile buffer and said the working group that steered the project included agencies and local stakeholders, including county fire, state parks, the Agoura Fire Safe Council and the Santa Monica Mountains Fire Safe Council. "It’s your community. It’s your plan. It’s not our plan. We just helped facilitate it," Kerr said, inviting critical public comments before the report is finalized.

Presenters highlighted several findings that guided their draft recommendations: clusters of historic ignitions, multiple fingers of uninterrupted wildland fuels that extend into neighborhoods (notably near Reyes Adobe Road, Chesebro Canyon and areas behind the high school), narrow or poorly maintained private roads that can limit fire access, and structure vulnerabilities such as complex roofs and combustible vents or adjacent fencing.

City and county fire officials emphasized defensible space and home hardening. Drew Smith, assistant fire chief, urged homeowners to inspect the first five feet around structures and to reduce fine fuels and combustible items that can catch embers. "We know that through data... that within that first 5 feet, you have significant vulnerabilities," Smith said. He noted the new "0 zone" — a nonflammable zone from 0 to 5 feet next to a structure — is already on the books and under discussion with the Board of Forestry.

Residents raised practical concerns during a lengthy Q&A. Attendees asked about grant funding and programs to trim or remove hazardous trees and about whether Firewise recognition helps secure insurance discounts. Peter Feller of the Agoura Hills Fire Safe Council explained how the national Firewise program issues community certificates and advised residents to provide certificates and maps to brokers. Several homeowners asked how homeowners associations (HOAs) could be encouraged or assisted to adopt home-hardening measures and defensible-space rules; presenters said sample guidance exists but emphasized responses must account for neighborhood differences.

Other recurring community requests included: clearer and more accessible evacuation-zone information (presenters said LA County posts nine evacuation zones for Agoura Hills), more public outreach and door-to-door education, logistical support for vent-mesh distribution and installation, and interagency coordination to address locked gates or site-specific evacuation obstacles. A resident asked whether the city could coordinate with a local school to unlock an access gate in an emergency; city staff said they would follow up with the concern.

Process and next steps: presenters said public comments on the draft CWRA are being accepted through August 8, and they expect the final CWRA to be published in September 2025. Those results will feed into a more detailed Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) that will include more site-specific mitigation projects and grant-ready descriptions. Kerr and city staff said the CWRA/CWPP package is intended to support grant eligibility and to help prioritize both near-term (lower-cost, parcel-level) and longer-term actions.

The workshop combined technical findings with community questions about funding, enforcement and equitable implementation. City staff and partners encouraged residents to use available resources, including the Agoura Hills Fire Safe Council’s materials and LA County evacuation-zone mapping, and to submit written comments via the city’s CWRA webpage before the August 8 deadline.

The city asked attendees to direct technical or follow-up questions to staff or the Fire Safe Council, and presenters said they would incorporate community input into the final CWRA and into the next-step CWPP work.